Miracle Romance: A Modern Rendition
by Ryta-chan
Summary: (AU) Being a teenage girl can sure be tough when you crushing hard on a super-cute guy! "But he's older you know." "He's a little..aloof." Usagi's heard it all before, along with being told over and over that they're very different from each other. Can Usagi overcome all these difference to keep the one she loves most right by her side?Or will she succumb to the impossible reality?
1. Crush

It was a simple quiet morning, only five-thirty. Not a single sound could be heard from the Tsukino household, everyone too busy dreaming. But one room appeared to be more..active than the others. Inside a fairly large room that was lit dimly by the morning sun that peered through the curtains was the unconscious Usagi Tsukino, thrashing in her bed as she dreamt of strange things.

"Motoki!" Usagi cried helplessly in her dream as she ran madly across the pavement. She felt as if she'd been running in circles for hours but her legs weren't giving in surprisingly. Maybe they were her feelings for Motoki were granting her legs the power they needed to search for her beloved. She cried for Motoki again and again with no avail, he was nowhere to be found. Eventually, she stopped to catch her breath and leaned against the door to the arcade, which she'd sworn she already passed about eight times.

"It's no use.." She panted in defeat.

But then all of a sudden, she heard footsteps that sounded like they belonged to Motoki, or at least, she hoped they belonged to Motoki. Her head shot up immediately and she quickly scanned her surroundings for the figure whom the footsteps belonged to.

"Motoki!" She shouted desperately and almost joyfully," Is that you?"

Her hands clung on to her shirt and above her heart, she could feel it race with hope. It had to be him, it just _had to._ From the corner of her eye, she saw a figure that looked just like him and Usagi was just about to dash towards him, but then the figure began to speak, and his voice sounded nothing like Motoki's.

"Why are you looking for Motoki?" The voice asked. It sounded stern and mature, unlike Motoki's generally upbeat tone. It sounded slightly intimidating as well and his question provoked Usagi to answer without thinking.

"Because I love him!" Usagi proclaimed as she held her shirt tighter.

"You do?" The figure asked in a condescending tone, as if he was talking to a four year old girl about love.

Usagi said nothing and she instantly woke up from her dream.

"Wha..?" Usagi sighed in confusion. The dream bugged her very much, that figure bugged her even more. Questioning her like that about her crush, who did he think he was? Did he know something she didn't? Likely not, he didn't exist to begin with. But that voice sounded so..familiar. It made Usagi uncomfortable just thinking about thinking about it. She blinked slowly for a few moments and decided to check the time. It was six now and there was no use getting ready for school now when she could just go back to sleep for a little while longer. With a loud yawn, she crashed back down onto her back and fell asleep peacefully.

That morning, around seven-fifty Usagi was awoken by the sound of someone screaming her name at the top of her lungs.

"Motoki..?" She wondered aloud in a sleepy voice.

"Usagi Tsukino if you don't get out of bed you're going to be late for the third time this week!" Her mother bellowed from down-stairs.

"What you can't be seriou-!" Usagi then turned her head towards her clock to check the time. It was now seven-fifty five.

"But how did that happened?!" She screamed as she jumped out of bed fishing for her clothes from inside her closet. She had her outfit already planned, now it was just a matter of putting it on. She struggled to drive her legs into her mid-length cream coloured skirt while she looked for the sleeves of her turquoise top. During this process,she fell twice.

"If you think this is my fault.." Usagi began to shout as she raced down the stairs with her pigtails crooked,"..I'll have you know I don't recall you waking me up once this week!"

"But I did Usagi and all you said was 'I'm coming, mother' and then go back to sleep." Her mother explained sounding extremely irritated while she made her daughter's lunch.

"Well, gotta go! Catch you later!" Usagi said in a hurry as she lunged for her lunch from her mother.

"Usagi, wait I-!" Usagi mom called out before Usagi left the house. But she was stopped in mid-sentence by the slam of the door.

"-didn't put in your dessert."

"Today is going to be so great, I get to have lunch with Motoki!" Usagi cheered with a huge grin on her face as she walked quickly to school. She giggled to herself as she remembered his exact words from yesterday.

_"Tomorrow? Yeah, sure! I have something special planned anyways, I can't wait!"_

"Motoki's going to ask me to be his girlfriend, me!" Usagi thought aloud, not even caring about the few glances she was receiving from people who crossed her path as she said that. She prepared herself yesterday for this lunch. She practiced in the mirror by saying she'd loved to be his girlfriend, she chose the most mature looking outfit she could find in her closet (Without looking too mature of course) and she was wearing her lucky charm; a choker with a crescent moon dangling from it.

"I wonder what it's going to be like to have a older boyfriend~" Usagi sighed to herself in pure bliss. Motoki was indeed two years older than Usagi but she figured age was just a number, it could never get in the way of love. They had known each for three whole weeks now exactly and her first encounter with Motoki simply made her smile dreamily.

She was at the arcade, playing that new Sailor V game and she just died the fourth time that day.

"Not again!" She grimaced as she inserted another set of coins into the machine. She felt someone behind her and slowly turned around to see who it was. It was the boy who worked here. He was looking down at her with these friendly green eyes and a warm smile. Usagi felt herself blush and finally said,

"Can I help you?"

"I noticed you seemed to get stuck on that one boss battle," He pointed out.

"Y-yeah.." Usagi agreed.

"Here, let me show you how to get pass him.." He said as Usagi moved to the next seat while he took over. Usagi watched as this boy evaded each attack with such expertise, as if he'd been playing this game for years, but that couldn't be possible; the game only came out last month. Soon, he reached the boss Usagi failed to defeat and began to tell her some tips on how to defeat him without taking his eyes off the screen.

"See, it's best to attack from the back quickly and when he turns around you jump back to front, which is now his back.

"Oh.." Usagi sounded as she watched him play.

"You have to do it very quickly though, otherwise you leave yourself wide-open." He mentioned.

"Can I try?" Usagi asked.

"Sure," He said as he moved over to let her play.

Usagi did as the boy told her to, but she felt herself struggling a bit.

"I'm almost there.." She said in a near exhausted tone. She soon gave it her all and defeated the boss.

"I did it!" She exclaimed as she hugged the boy in victory,"Thank you, uh.."

"I'm Motoki," The boy introduced as his blond hair fell over his eyes.

"I'm Usagi," Usagi beamed with a wink.

"Hey, do you go to Juuban?" He asked all of a sudden.

"Yeah, why?" Usagi asked in an innocent voice.

"I go there too, I'm in my senior year. I think I've seen you around before." Motoki stated.

"Oh really? Well, yeah I'm usually there.." Usagi said awkwardly," Sometimes I'm stuck in the hall for not finishing my math homework though, hehe.."

"Why not?" Motoki questioned.

Usagi shrugged in a very nonchalant manner," It makes no sense so I just gave up."

"Aw, well I'm pretty good at math myself, would you like me to tutor you?" Motoki offered.

Usagi instantly lit up, "You'd do that?! For me?!"

Motoki grinned," Sure why not?"

Ever since then, they had been meeting up on Mondays and Tuesday to go over Usagi's math homework and he was indeed a good tutor. Though it took some time for some things to finally make sense to Usagi. But Motoki didn't seem to mind. If anything, it seemed Motoki was thrilled when Usagi didn't initially understand something, maybe it was because then they'd spend a little more time together, or it was just all in her head.

Lunch eventually came and Usagi felt her heart race just as quickly as it did in her dream that morning. They decided to meet at the doors at the end of the second hall and Usagi figured she was early so she waited. After a few minutes, she decided to look outside the door through it's glass window and found a gorgeous girl with flowing long hair waiting for someone. She had a slender build and such a pretty face, Usagi wondered what a girl like her was doing on her school grounds.

"Reika!" She heard a voice cry out from nowhere. The voice sounded vaguely familiar but before she could match it to anybody, she saw Motoki approach her and hug her tightly.

"That girl..couldn't be.." Usagi gasped as she felt her heart sink. The boy she was majorly crushing on, the boy who aided her in defeating that boss, the boy who gave up his free time to help her with her homework was..taken? This felt just like a rejection but she didn't feel as devastated as she thought she would. The distress from her broken heart felt like it was subsiding and now all she felt was disappointment. Disappointment in herself that she forgot to prepare for this. She went off to find her friends Naru and Ami to eat with them.

"Usagi where have you been?" Ami asked as Usagi sat down with them.

"She obviously went to meet up with her..secret lover~!" Naru guessed with a wink.

"Very funny," Usagi said dryly as she opened her lunch. That's right, they never knew about Motoki and now they never would. Usagi was hoping to tell the girls about Motoki after they became a thing, but once again, didn't happen.

"Oh girls guess what!" Naru suddenly exclaimed.

"Hm?" Ami looked up from her lunch.

"What?" Usagi asked with a mouthful of rice.

"So, I was waiting for Usagi to come to tell you guys this so..I got a boyfriend!" Naru announced.

Usagi choked on her rice while Ami just sat there in shock with her hands over her mouth.

"What?! Naru, since when?" Ami asked while Usagi continued to cough up rice.

"Oh, we've known each other for a couple of months now and just last week he asked me to be his girl! His name is Masato and he's a real great guy, I can't wait for you guys to meet him!"

"How lovely, what school does he go to?" Ami asked her. Naru's gaze fell to the floor and her face turned red with what appeared to be shame.

"About that.." Naru began in an uneasy tone," See, he visits my mom's jewelry store regularly, that's how I met him and.."

"..He's nineteen."

Now it was Ami's turn to choke, but unlike Usagi, she recovered quickly,"N-naru I-I..." Naru turned to face Ami and when Ami looked into her eyes she felt, a little inferior. Naru appeared wise and mature all of a sudden, was that all from the fact she just announced she was dating someone older? Or rather because, she knew it seemed strange because she was too in love to let it faze her.

"..I'm happy for you, regardless." Ami finally said, receiving a large smile from Naru.

"I'm really in no position to judge am I?" Usagi thought as her eyes narrowed. As Naru talked a little more about Masato, she could see just how happy Naru was as she blushed and giggled with each and every word.

"Good for you Naru." Usagi thought.

Later during the beginning of her last period class, Usagi was busy cringing at a test she received from previous class: Math. She scored a solid nine out of thirty, which unfortunately was not a passing grade. And this test was from a couple of weeks before she started studying with Motoki She was in Art class now though, and she didn't have to worry about her math test mark. Today's assignment was to choose a painting to recreate and, paint. The project was due in a month so it wasn't too worrisome right now. The person sitting to her right was looking at pictures of paintings from books, his name was Mamoru. Usagi met him through another friend but never spoke much with him. He seemed very into the book he was looking at and Usagi didn't realize she was staring until he pointed it out.

"Is there something wrong?" He asked stoically.

"Uh, no, nothing at all!" Usagi responded frantically as she turned away to look at the book in her lap. He had some nerve to call her out, but it wasn't like it was wrong of him. It was totally normal of him to, she supposed. She looked around the classroom, this class consisted of first-years, second-years and third-years. It was kinda nice but it felt unsettling at times considering she was one of the youngest in the class. Ami wasn't in this class and neither was Naru and so the only person she knew was Mamoru, sorta.

At the end of the day, Usagi stood up from her seat and waited by the door just like everyone else. If this was any other class, they'd remain seated until the bell rang but thankfully, art class didn't have that rule.

"Hey," Mamoru called out. Usagi spun around but realized he probably wasn't calling her. But as she turned to face him, his was looking directly at her.

"You forgot to put your chair on the desk." He pointed to her empty chair that was alone on the floor.

Suddenly the bell rang and the students began to flood out of the room.

"Ah-! Do you think you could?" Usagi shouted over the flood of students.

"Why should I?" He questioned.

A slightly irritated Usagi responded with," Well, you're closer."

"You've got two legs, just walk over and put it up." He suggested as he walked away from the chair.

"Hey, come on!" Usagi complained as she swiftly put up the chair and hastily crumpled up a random piece of paper from her binder and threw it at him.

"Wait a minute, was that my-?" Usagi asked in mid-sentence before she was cut off by Mamoru.

"Can you not?" He asked as he uncrumpled it," Seriously, a thirty percent?"

Usagi turned bright red as she tried to take it back from him.

"Give me back my test!" She grunted angrily.

"Why, you practically gave it to me. I think I'll keep this." He jeered.

"I won't let you!" She cried as she tried to snatch it back.

He finally threw it back to her," Later, bun-head."

And with that, he left.

Usagi double-blinked and stood there, unsure of what just happened.

"..Bun-head?"


	2. Helping Hand

Despite the trouble Motoki caused Usagi, she continued to study with him for the sake of her grades. Even though she was originally convinced to have him to tutor her on account of his good looks, he still was an excellent tutor and Usagi couldn't just desert him because of what she saw. As she was working on math problems beside Motoki, her mind was being invaded with thoughts regarding him and Reika. How long did they know each other? What was it about Reika that he seemed to adore? Was Reika a good match for him? Or, what if this was all one giant misunderstanding? What if, Reika was his long lost sister and they had just reunited? Or maybe she was an old friend, or even an old teacher (but that kinda stretching it.) Motoki still had that look in his eyes that Usagi read as affectionate whenever he looked towards her. He always had that look in his eyes whenever he saw her. But, it was as if that look was amplified when he saw Reika.

"You have another test in Math tomorrow right?" Motoki asked.

Usagi snapped back to her senses as heard Motoki," Yeah." Motoki then opened up her textbook and began to underline things with his pencil.

"Then maybe we should start going over the areas where you have the most difficulty with," He suggested," Now I noticed with basic questions, you do perfectly fine but when it comes to word problems you tend to.."

Usagi zoned out once more and pretended as if she was listening to Motoki as he explained his thoughts about Usagi's study habits.

"That girl must be really lucky if she is his boyfriend.." Usagi thought dreamily.

"Oh yeah, I've been meaning to ask you.." Motoki said abruptly. Usagi was snapped back to reality as Motoki changed the subject. Usagi's heart decided to race yet again due to this ambiguous sentence. Usagi winced at how easy it was to sway her heart into different motions and sat there waiting for Motoki to continue.

"You never showed up on Wednesday at lunch, what happened?" Motoki asked.

"Oh, I..um, I forgot my friends and I planned to work on this project for class and I couldn't really leave them, sorry about that.." Usagi apologized, feeling a trifle guilty that she lied to him.

"It's ok, it's just my girlfriend came to visit during lunch and I wanted you to meet her." He explained.

Usagi bit her lip, upset that her prediction was correct," Girlfriend, huh?"

"Yeah, her name's Reika and.." He began to talk of her passionately, and it reminded Usagi of how Naru was talking about her boyfriend. But, he seemed way more enthusiastic about his partner than Naru was (Not that Naru wasn't enthusiastic.) Just from this one-sided conversation, it was easy for Usagi to decipher just how much Motoki really loved Reika. He probably has already met her family, knows her birthday off the top of his head, her favourite colour, all her likes and dislikes. Never had Usagi seen Motoki so happy, and Reika wasn't even here! Imagining how much happier he'd be if Reika was at his side right now made Usagi's heart sink.

"..You two would really like each other, she loves kids like you." Motoki stated, making Usagi frown.

"Kids like me..? She said under her breath.

"You really remind me of her, you know.." He said before he dropped the topic. That remark made Usagi flinch and she didn't know just how she felt about it. She reminded him of the one he's madly in love with? That's almost like him being in love with her, except, she wasn't Reika.

"So, I made some notes for you to study off them and I made them so that their easy to understand, alright?" He said as he handed her a stack of paper. Usagi nodded her head, her gaze stuck to the ground. Motoki failed to notice this and bade her farewell for the day.

When Usagi arrived home, her mother greeted her with a box of sweets, macarons to be exact. She exhaled a massive sigh and took half of the box's contents in her hand and dragged herself up the stairs.

"Was it something I said?" Usagi's mother said as she double-blinked.

In her bedroom, Usagi was lying on top of her bed with her legs crossed and her back against the wall. As she munched on the macarons she tried to understand and figure out just how she was feeling about this whole ordeal. Was she depressed that Motoki loved someone else, someone was reminded of his lover when he looked at her? Or maybe she was jealous of Reika and what she had with Motoki. Either way, whatever it was eating her insides and made her just want to eat macarons until she exploded.

The next few days left her feeling a bit better with each day that passed but whenever she was around Motoki, she'd briefly relapsed until he was gone again. All it would take was passing glance for Usagi's hurt to return. That hurt reappeared almost instantly when she saw him as he walked to art. With a simple 'Hey!', Usagi was reduced to her more crestfallen self from a few days ago.

Usagi sat herself beside Mamoru as usual, who began working on painting his piece. It appeared he didn't even notice her sit down beside, his sapphire eyes appearing to be fixated on his project. Usagi had only started drawing hers out, so she was a tad behind. There was an eerie silence between as they worked, and suddenly he asked her.

"You would happened to have a liner brush would you?" Mamoru asked.

Usagi tinted red for a moment before she responded,"H-here." She held out her brush to him. Gingerly, he took the brush from her but not without noticing something seemed different about Usagi.

"You seem out of it today." He remarked.

"It's nothing," Usagi blurted out," Why should it even matter to you?"

"Ok, I was just saying." Mamoru shrugged as he resumed working on his piece.

Just then, Usagi realized something; that voice she heard in her dream, that voice was Mamoru's! But why was he in her dream? She glanced over the ever so hard-working Mamoru and studied his features. Hair that was dark like a raven's, strong yet stern eyes, an indifferent expression he seemed to always wear. He was very much a complete opposite to the bright and upbeat Motoki. And Usagi found that almost..attractive.

When the bell rang, Usagi found herself with her hands not big enough too carry all her things to her locker. As she strained to hold all of her things, despite being unable to, she caught a certain someone's eye.

"Need a little help?" Mamoru offered just before all of the items in Usagi's hands tumbled out from her grasp.

"I..sure, thanks." Usagi said as she gave him her binders while she held her art project. As they walked to her locker, she felt her blushing and made sure not to face him or even look at him during these fleeting moments.

"See ya," He said as he left Usagi at her locker after giving her back her binders.

Usagi couldn't even manage a goodbye, too embarrassed by how much she was blushing.

As she put her things into her bag, she noticed her heart was beating just as quickly as it was when she was around Motoki.

"That was...quite nice of him," She mused.


	3. Conflicted

As Usagi walked home, she felt her mind clutter with all these thoughts surrounding Mamoru being the mystery man in her dream. Of all people, why was it him? Was there truly any significance to this? It was so strange really, he was nothing more than an acquaintance for the longest while, now all of a sudden, he was helping her carry her books to her locker? While she thought about this predicament with Mamoru, she felt somewhat guilty as Motoki crossed her mind.

"Why does my heart beat so quickly when I'm around him?" Usagi asked herself absently. It felt so wrong of her to feel like this towards a man who wasn't Motoki, but then again, would Motoki even care if she had her eye on another man? Likely not, considering it appeared he never realized she had her eye on him to begin with. Each time Usagi considered the possibility of her crushing on Mamoru, she flinched. What was there to like about Mamoru anyways? He appeared to be a downer who could only get a rise from teasing Usagi. But he did offer to carry her books to her locker, could that have been to make up for the day before?

When Usagi reached her home, she quietly entered and slipped away into her room, not being in a mood to be disturbed so that she could work out this issue without being interrupted. As she looked out the window of her bedroom, she began to wonder what was it that was faintly attracting her to Mamoru. She never noticed it before, but Mamoru was indeed quite attractive, but so far he seemed to have a somewhat drab personality. Something told her this wasn't a physical attraction but if that wasn't it, what _was _it?

Suddenly, an unexpected concept appeared in her head.

"Did he know about my crush on Motoki?" She pondered aloud. It seemed to have made a decent fit, it was only just after her finding out about Motoki and Reika did he begin to interact with her. But then another thought appeared in her head.

"What if he's trying to get me on the rebound?" She cringed at the thought. Usually, the term 'rebound' was reserved for relationships that were established and broken up, but it was possible for it to translate to her particular situation. Mamoru didn't appear to be like that, at least she hoped. Why would anyone want to get involved with someone two years younger than them in high-school anyways? Maybe she was just overthinking all of this. But she couldn't get that kind gesture of his out her head, nor his hint of compassion from that other day. It eventually began to drive her mad and so to stray her thoughts away from Mamoru, she proceeded to study for her upcoming science test. It she was going to give herself headaches, it might as well have been from something she hated.

For the rest of the night, she forced herself to avoid drowning in thoughts about Mamoru and tried as hard as she could to think about lighter topics. It wasn't necessarily the easiest task but she fought to preform it successfully for her own sake. She knew too well if she brooded over the thought and romanticized it, it would only make her expectations for a love that wasn't unrequited from Mamoru higher. She had already made that mistake with Motoki. It was at first difficult for Usagi to fall asleep now that she had the opportunity to create a whole fantasy world that feature her and Mamoru but of course, she fought against the desire. It was way too early in the game for this, plus there's was always the chance that this could only keep her awake for longer than wanted.

"I can't remember my dream from last night.." Usagi said to herself quietly as she walked to school the next morning,"..But something tells me Mamoru paid a visit in it." She had woken up early this morning, much to the surprise of everyone in her household and within a short matter of time, she was already off to school. But everyone failed to notice how deep in thought Usagi was for so early in the morning.

"Agh! I need to quit doing this! Quit thinking about him.." Usagi scolded herself as she gave herself a whack on the head, gaining a few concerned stares from others in the vicinity.

"Besides.." Usagi murmured,"..This isn't fair to him.." Every time she thought about Mamoru for extended periods of time, the image of Motoki's bright smile would appear from nowhere into her head, making her feel remorseful of her daydreams. But it felt almost as if she had a right to think of Mamoru like this when she took into consideration what Motoki did to her. Leading her on, making her believing he had a thing for her. It was just wrong and he should've been more careful! Usagi exasperated an enormous sigh, unsure of what she should do.

"I just wish I had someone who could tell what to do about this.." Usagi moaned as she hung her head. All of a sudden, someone came to mind; a certain short-haired brunette who wore a turquoise bow in her hair.

When she approached Naru in the most cautious manner ever, Usagi began to feel butterflies emerge in her stomach. Never had she asked Naru for love advice, but something about her just screamed 'wise beyond years in the field of love' right now. It was probably that look she was wearing today that told Usagi that Masato was on the brunette's mind.

"Naru.." Usagi began slowly as Naru's head spun around.

"Whoa, is that you Usagi? At this early in the morning?" Naru snickered," What's up?"

"I need some advice." Usagi said warily.

"About what?" Naru responded in a cheerful yet ignorant tone.

"See,well..alright. Suppose you found yourself caught liking two boys at the same time. Which boy do you think you'd go for?" Usagi asked.

Naru stopped to think for a moment and replied with," The boy I liked second."

"Why?" Usagi questioned, a little stunned that Naru didn't ask why Usagi was asking such a question.

"Because if I really liked the first guy, I wouldn't have fallen for the second one now would I?" Naru explained.

"I suppose not.." Usagi said softly, annoyed that she wasn't able to figure it out as simply as Naru.

"But, first.." Naru spoke suddenly," In the case of something like the first boy did something that hurt me without him realizing it, I'd have to make sure I didn't fall for the second boy just to spite the first one."

"To spite the first one?" Usagi repeated with a hint of confusion.

"When we're hurt, we do things we regret. Things that are bad because we feel deserve to after what the world has brought upon us. But it's not fair to hurt another who has nothing to do with the matter when the world hurts you. Because then a cycle of hate is born." Naru explained.

"I see.." Usagi commented," Thank you so much, Naru."

"Anytime," Naru nonchalantly responded.

Now all that was left for Usagi to do was to make sure she wasn't crushing on Mamoru just to spite Motoki. Usagi thought long and hard about it during third period but she wasn't sure how to make the connection between Naru's words and her ordeal. Eventually, it all made sense to her.

"Whenever I think of Mamoru, I always tend to avoid thinking of Motoki because I know how ashamed it'll make me feel." She thought to herself," The thought of hurting Motoki by crushing on Mamoru never occurred to me, it was actually the opposite."

She sighed a tiny breath of relief,"Well, at least now I know I not crushing on Mamoru in hopes of hurting Motoki. But now I wonder, are these feelings for Mamoru really there?"

At lunch, Usagi found herself sitting by herself in front of her locker as Ami and Naru were nowhere to be found. As she opened her lunch with herself seated against the locker, she felt someone kick her leg very lightly. She looked up and saw Mamoru looking down at her. Usagi tinted pink as she stared up to Mamoru, his eyes locked on hers.

"You should come have lunch with me," He suggested passively.

"I should?" Usagi repeated," Or do you just want me to?"

He merely shrugged,"Either way, you coming?"

"Sure." Usagi replied with a smirk naturally appearing onto her face. She rose up and walked beside him. Something about this notion just screamed to Usagi he was at least somewhat interested in her. Why else would he invite her? Because she was sitting by herself? Well, it was a possibility. As she sat beside him during lunch, she felt her heart skip beats, freed from the guilt of Motoki. These feelings, that appeared to have come out of nowhere were flowing into her love-stricken eyes, eyes that Mamoru didn't catch onto as he was too busy eating.

"Though it seems these feelings appear to be have came from nowhere, they feel too real. I don't how this began, but all of a sudden, I feel myself crushing harder on him. This couldn't be love, could it? These feelings, they're stronger than the ones I had for Motoki, I'm sure of it. But why is that? What has Mamoru done to transcend Motoki? I'll have to figure that out later..when I'm not around him so I can at least straighten out my thoughts."


	4. Confess

Usagi took brisk steps away from her locker as the end of the school day arrived. She felt unusually jittery and she knew all too well why. She had literally just spent the last hour teasing and chatting with Mamoru. Most of his remarks (Alright, all of his remarks) towards Usagi were snide deadpans which would make Usagi try to defend herself with her thoughts all jumbled and make Mamoru laugh. Before today, she couldn't ever recall seeing Mamoru laugh before. It really was a nice change of pace to see a grin on his face as opposed to his normal stern expression.

Just as commenced walking home, she bumped into someone and the two tumbled down. Usagi rubbed her head in pain, groaning and getting ready to shout at the person she collided with.

"You oughta watch where you're going!" She shouted, not seeing the face of her colliding partner just yet. As she looked up to face them, she winced at her previous words now that she knew who she just said them to. Before her was a regretful looking, sheepish really Motoki lying with a pile of papers scattered around him.

"Sorry about that Usagi!" Motoki promptly apologized," I was just coming to see you."

"See me?" Usagi repeatedly confusedly as she continued to rub her head.

"Yeah, we're studying today remember?" Motoki reminded," Or did you forget because we bumped heads?"

Studying with Motoki was losing it's appeal quickly; Usagi didn't honestly care for academics so much that she needed a tutor; sixties and seventies suited her just fine. But she hadn't yet planned her resignation from these tutoring sessions as it didn't yet cross her mind. She was obviously too busy looming over better things. She also wasn't ready to leave him due to the fact that the chance of hurting his feelings or him becoming unfriendly to her was present.

Motoki began to collect the papers around him and Usagi just watched dumb-founded. There were still many students leaving for school and a few girls and boys helped Motoki to collect his papers. As he collected them with the very small group, he thanked everyone who helped and made a few jokes with them. They laughed and he did the same along with them. Once the group disappeared, Motoki lead Usagi to their usual study place. As Motoki walked in front of Usagi, she couldn't help but think deeper about what just happened.

"He was so nice to everyone and so outgoing like usual, like he is with me.." She noted," He's naturally a very friendly person, that much seems obvious now. And not to mention he has this uplifting quality. No wonder Reika loves him."

This study session was inhumanly quiet for Usagi and also bizarre for Motoki. Generally she was asking questions every two minutes which led to lengthy responses from him and then the deserting of the whole math topic because of Usagi making a random comment that spun into a conversation. While these instances didn't happen frequently, they were admittedly fun.

"Motoki.." Usagi said all of a sudden.

"Yeah Usagi?" Motoki replied in quite the attentive manner.

"How did you and Reika meet?" Usagi asked as she tapped her pencil against her paper with little interest.

"How did we..meet?" Motoki repeated, surprised Usagi would ask such a thing," Well, it was about a couple of months ago I believe. She was in her senior year at Juuban and I was nothing more a junior. It all began when I sat beside her on the bus and she was on her phone. I'll admit, I was paying extra attention to her because well, I thought she was gorgeous. I turned my gaze away from her for one second and from the corner of my eye I see her tapped furiously at her screen. I look back to her and see she's playing a mobile version of one of the games at the arcade.

"Whoa, you play this game too?!" I blurt out and what feels like everyone, including Reika has had their attention grabbed by me. Everyone else just resumes to doing what they were already doing and Reika simply responds with.

"Yeah, it's kinda addictive, see I first played at this arcade nearby," She responds sheepishly, sounding almost like she was ashamed to be seen playing such a game in public.

"Game Center Crown? I just started working there!" I tell her.

"We then began talking about video games and I told her what days I worked on," Motoki explained.

"Then what?" Usagi beckoned.

"She showed up every shift I worked on." Motoki answered in a rather smug voice," After getting to know each other, I realized 'wow, I think I love her' but, I waited for a bit before I asked her out because I didn't ever recall experiencing these emotions before I met Reika. The idea of love, well that kind of love, was pretty new to me. I wasn't sure what romantic feelings were at the time but looking back, I know I had fallen head over heels for her."

"How sweet.." Usagi commented, her eyes fixated on her notebook.

"Yeah, it's kinda sad though, we don't get to see each other as often as we used to.." Motoki confessed with a small sigh.

"So how often do you two see each other?" Usagi asked.

"We aim for three or four times a week, but you know they say..absence makes the heart grow fonder." Motoki smirked,"So Usagi.."

"Huh?" Usagi sounded.

"Is there someone you think you like that way?" He asked, eyebrows raised.

Usagi blushed brightly and stuttered a mess of a response," W-w-well, I'm n-not sure if I'd call it, well, you know, l-love..."

Motoki chuckled and gave Usagi a light push," He's a lucky guy."

"Why do you say that?" Usagi asked, feeling her heart race yet again from another ambiguous statement.

"Oh shoot would you look at the time. I gotta be at the arcade for my next shift in fifteen minutes," He said, sounding not as frantic as one would expect but more as if he needed an excuse to leave.

"Catch you later, ok?" Motoki said as he packed up his things.

"Later," Usagi responded as she waved goodbye. Usagi felt lonely once Motoki was completely gone and so she walked home with thoughts of Mamoru in hopes him being in her mind would keep her company.

For the next few weeks, Usagi and Mamoru had been hanging out with each other quite a bit, well more than Usagi was expecting. Usagi asked him during art if he wanted to have lunch with her every now and then and he'd say yes and the two would have lunch in moderate silence. Some of their conversations were short-lived but for Usagi, they were blessings. Some lunches the two would go into the art room to work on their projects.

"You're only halfway done?!" Usagi guffawed," It's due in four days you know."

"Don't worry, I'll have it finished in three." He said as he winked at Usagi. Usagi held back a smile and continued to work on her project. Simply being by his side was very nice, that much she had to admit and the thought of a mutual affection came up more often. Some days, it seemed possible. Other days, it was hard to tell. After all this time they spent together, Usagi eventually considered the idea of confessing.

"I shouldn't, not when we're always surrounded by people!" Usagi thought to herself in her bedroom, holding her hands against her hot cheeks," Besides, we're two years apart. But it's not like that ever stopped us from hanging out together."

"But dating.." Usagi said absently,"..Is a whole different relationship."

Usagi laid her head on her pillow and looked up carelessly to her ceiling. It felt nice to view something blank while her head was swimming with thoughts.

"I swear, he feels something for me. He's always so detached generally but when he's around me, he's so..so different. He actually emotes around me and his smile feels almost, genuine." Usagi lamented," It just has to mean something, I know it does."

Usagi shot up and glared in the direction of her calendar," That settles it, I'm confessing to him." She walked up to her calendar.

"But when?"

Today was the ninth and it was almost the end of the week. Next week felt quite rushed so she glanced over to the week after. She soon decided upon a date with confidence.

She announced,"I'll do it the twentieth!"

The next few days left her stomach writhing with anxiety for short periods of time whenever thoughts of the confession day appeared. It was exciting, nerve-wracking and horrifying all at the same time. There was no notable change in how Mamoru acted around Usagi which was a good sign. But, Usagi's friends noticed a shift in how much Usagi took part in their conversation. Ami believed she was the first to notice until she saw Naru staring directly at Usagi during their lunch break.

Ami then received a text from Naru within seconds.

Naru: You noticed right?

Ami: Yeah, what do you think it is?

Ami looked up to Naru when Naru tapped her lightly on her knee. Naru mouthed the word 'love'. Ami brought her hand to her mouth, taken aback by how sure Naru seemed of her prediction.

Ami: Why do you think that?

Naru: Look at her eyes.

Ami, slightly befuddled by the text, looked up at Usagi and noticed they seemed abnormally filled with joy yet thoughtful. Ami also noticed that Usagi was looking towards the left expecting, as if she was hoping to see someone. Suddenly, her eyes seemed to have enlarged, as if she finally scoped out the person she had been looking for. She waved a small wave and it appeared that the person returned the wave, but Ami wasn't able to distinguish who was the wave receiver in the large crowd that suddenly materialized from nowhere. But Naru did.

"Who is that guy? And how does Usagi know him?" Naru thought.

"Just one more day.." Usagi thought to herself as she stared down her phone's lock screen, revealing today was the nineteenth. She turned off her phone and looked in the direction where Mamoru was headed longingly. Ami was too busy immersing herself into a book she appeared to have been reading to notice Usagi's yearning gaze, but Naru on the other hand did.

"Maybe I'll have to ask him about that guy.." Naru thought while glancing over to Usagi.

Later that night, Usagi was in her newly unorganized room looking through her jewelry box for something that could act as a lucky charm or something for tomorrow.

She'd been rummaging through the cherry finish box for about fifteen minutes now and finding only two or three items that seemed alright, she felt ready to give and forget about finding an article of jewelry to wear. Until she spotted a necklace with a dazzling crystal dangling from it. It was quick to entrance Usagi and it almost made her completely forget to question where this necklace came from.

"I guess it was a birthday gift.." Usagi said with little concern as she put it on,"..Or something like that."

She walked over to her closet and opened it, revealing a mirror on the inside of the door. She looked down at the necklace and decided with the most confidence that this was going to be her good luck charm.

She turned away from the mirror and noticed how antsy she began to feel by just preparing for tomorrow.

"All I have to do is think of him, and I get butterflies." She sighed to herself. It was about nine-thirty now and while the idea of going to bed early did occur to Usagi, the idea of not being able to sleep due to how anxious she was had occurred as well. What she did do was lay in bed and try her hardest to not think of tomorrow and try to convince herself tomorrow was going to be just like any other day. But even her drowsy, half-awake self wasn't able to believe that. Thankfully though, she did manage to fall asleep but not without dreaming of her and Mamoru.

This dream felt very similar to the first dream she had of Mamoru, where his voice appeared and condescendingly spoke with her about Motoki but for the majority of the dream, all she was able to get were short glimpses of Mamoru, her dream self too busy doing other things to pay any attention to Mamoru (much to her own dismay.) And just when she was about to get a good look at Mamoru, she woke up.

"Is it morning already?" She asked as she watched the sunlight seep out from her curtains that were supposed to be obscuring it. It indeed was, about six-fifty. After the thought of Mamoru and today being the big day already appearing, Usagi was well-aware she wasn't going to get anymore sleep this morning and got herself out of bed.

As she got dressed she began to wonder why she wasn't able to see Mamoru in her dream. Did it mean something? The chances of it seemed rather high, as the last time she had a dream like this, it led her to finding out (foreshadowed at most) that her crush was already in love.

"Could Mamoru already be in love?" Usagi asked aloud softly, distress crawling up from her voice.

That didn't seem right, the thought never occurred to Usagi until this morning, thanks to that dream, but her dreams, whenever they were the night before something eventful, always had some vague meaning. It could've been something simple or something so complex it would take her weeks later to finally decipher. But no, it was was certainly not the time for her to dwell on her dreams, not right now at least. She put on her necklace that she decided would act as her good luck charm last night and went over her plan for today.

"Go to morning classes, have lunch with Mamoru, and take him to an empty part of the school. When there, make no hesitation and confess to him." She recited in the mirror. She nodded to her reflection and darted down the stairs. She ate breakfast very quickly and headed out the door, just a minute before it was eight o'clock.

Usagi walked to school at her regular pace when she wasn't rushing to school and thought aloud without realizing it.

"It's been a while since I felt this nervous." Usagi noted," Actually, I'm not sure if I've ever felt _this _nervous." Today, her nerves seemed to be acting out more than they usually would; She felt like there were a billion butterflies enclosed in her stomach as it writhed anxiously and the simple thought of lunch left Usagi's heart beating at a break-neck pace. It was stressful, it was exciting, not to mention it was also overwhelming. Usagi just couldn't wait to take a seat at her desk when she reached the school. When she sat down at her desk, she took deep breaths in and out in hopes of calming herself down. It worked for awhile but later in class, as the minutes went by and inched her closer to lunch, her heart began to continue beating at a near unhealthy pace.

"It just can't be helped." Usagi sighed to herself," Perhaps it's a sign."

Usagi then chose to throw herself into her assignment to avoid her anxious feelings that were chronically creeping up in her. She lost track of time and soon, the bell ringing for lunch sounded.

"Already?" Usagi squeaked as the students around her gathered their things and exited the classroom. She took one last breath and got up from her seat, her knees shaking relentlessly. She put her hand against her breast and felt how quickly her heart was beating. She never had felt anything like it before. It was interesting and also nerve-wracking. As if her nerves hadn't messed with her enough for the day. She approached her locker and took out her lunch, waiting for Mamoru. He didn't appeared for a good couple of minutes and Usagi was fine with that, it gave her time to compose herself just a little bit before he came. After a solid fifteen minutes, Usagi grew impatient and wondered where he could've been. She walked by his locker and couldn't find him there. Usagi frowned at this sight and she began to create scenarios in her mind as to why he didn't show up.

"Maybe he realized I liked him and now he doesn't want to see me because he doesn't like me." Usagi thought dismally," Maybe he's sick today, but he was perfectly fine yesterday. Why doesn't, or wouldn't like me? Is it the age gap? It is quite, outstanding, especially as we're both in high school. Or, maybe he doesn't like my appearance, am I too pale? Or it my blonde hair? Do I stand out too much?"

Usagi took another long, deep breath to recompose herself. Of course she was aware that these thoughts were spawning out of control, but then she remembered she had one place she didn't check yet. She walked to the back hall and there he was, with his friends and himself lined up against the wall sitting down, either eating or doing homework. She walked up in front of Mamoru with a rather disapproving look painted onto her face. At least he was here today though.

Mamoru eventually looked up and stared at Usagi with a rather inattentive set of eyes," Oh that's right, we were supposed to have lunch today weren't we?"

Usagi nodded haughtily down at him and he placed all of his things into his bag before he stood up. None of Mamoru's friends even noticed Mamoru stand up, let alone leave; which actually relieved Usagi.

"So where are you taking me?" Mamoru asked once he realized she was leading him somewhere specific.

"You'll see." Usagi said in a near neutral tone, a bit of fear deciding to season her voice. She knew just where she wanted to take him. Thankfully it was a warm sunny October day, which wasn't uncommon, so many groups of people chose to have lunch outside so there was less of a chance that her destination was vacant. She had a few places in mind prior to deciding upon one but many of those choices were either too cliched or overpopulated with kids from the school. She wanted to confess to him somewhere private, somewhere where it'd just be the two of them. She felt a little bad for not telling Ami or Naru where she'd be but the feeling soon subsided as she reached the spot they had been walking to. An abandoned wing of the school, but not dubbed 'off-limits' just yet. There was a door there with a glass window that let the sun pour into the hall. Usagi stumbled upon this wing a couple of months ago, when she had decided to wander off somewhere when she had no one to be around during lunchtime.

"Here?" Mamoru asked skeptically.

Usagi sat down as her way of responding and so, Mamoru did the same. Things fell silent once again when the two began to eat. Usagi tried to eat slowly so she wouldn't have to confess immediately but because she'd been anxious all day, she somehow managed to work up an appetite. Within a few minutes, she devoured everything from her lunchbox, much to her chagrin. She silently panicked and took a few moments to look at Mamoru. His profile was so handsome, Usagi was swooning from within. The sun shone brighter for a couple of seconds, highlighting his features. It would've been such a perfect time to confess to him there but, Usagi missed her chance and she felt herself turn shy. She cursed herself quietly, regretting allowing every good chance she had slip by her. She was eating her own time by allowing intervals of silence to occur after every few brief small talks. She began to genuinely worry now that she was going to lose this chance and just when Mamoru stood up and was about to leave for his next class, Usagi sprung up and called out,

"Mamoru there's something I have to tell you!"

Mamoru froze in place and sat back down looking her dead in her eyes. Usagi took a second to compose herself one last time.

A deep breath was released and she finally said," I have feelings for you, will you go out with me?"


End file.
